This is a really cool idea. Integrated Mobile Electronics is showing off this universal mp3 player dock at the anual SEMA conference (where all the auto makers and accessory people hang out and droll over shiny things). The dock achives it's near universal capabilites with interchangable dock modules, leaving the rest of the system totally intact. IME's new toy should ship with the ability to connect the iPod, Zune, Creative Zen Vision, Sandisk Sansa e2xx, and the iRiver Clix.

The iPod has a definate advantage when it comes ot in car integration. An estimate says 70% of new cars are optionable with an interface to Apple's popular mp3 player, and that's great news for the heath and safety people; the more tightly integrated your mp3 player to your in-car audio, the less attention you lose in fiddling with the controls. If more manufacturers switched to something like the IME device, it could help to weaken Apple's total stranglehold on in-car intergration.

[via Anything But iPod]